KatieMc

Fanfiction is not a new concept, but it has come into its own in the past 10 years.  While I am not a big reader of fanfics, I delight in the idea of it, and sometimes wonder where Harry Potter would be without it.  I love the idea that it has motivated many people to write, and that it will influence literature in the 21st century.  I love the idea that pearl-clutching literature and writing professors are now faced with students who already have the experience of writing hundreds of thousands of words.   Fangirl is a coming of age story of one such writer and how she navigates the the transition between childhood and adulthood, fandom and real life.  

One theme in Fangirl is the idea separation and connection.  The protagonist, Cath, has a twin sister, Wren (get it, Cath+Wren = Catherine, two people sharing one name). They are both starting out at University of Nebraska, but for the first in their life, they will not be roommates.   A forced separation also occurs when Cath's fiction writing professor urges her to separate her writing from her fandom.  Add to this an absent mother who starts to pop up, a father dealing with his own issues, a new writing partner, an old boyfriend, an indifferent roommate, and an all around nice guy who walks Cath home from the library.  While all this sounds a bit cliche, it is done well, with good writing and fanfiction (about a fictional Harry Potteresque fandom).   

The father's role in the story was an unexpected plus for me and I thought it was well done.  I also liked that the fact that the m/m shipping of Simon and Baz was just so matter of fact.   It wasn't unrealistically ignored, it just wasn't that big of a deal. Fangirl is not perfect, but it is darn good.  And I am going to recommend it to my teenage niece whose mother, my sister, has no clue of what fanfiction or a fandom is.

And just for fun, some Fangirl fanart behind the spoilers.